by Piper Rayne
She giggles.
“Excuse me?” A woman approaches and I straighten, removing my lips from Juno’s neck. “I had a few questions.”
“Sure.” Juno takes her to the side and pulls a business card from her back pocket.
Kingston and I strip our eyes off them and get back to our conversation.
“I have a question,” I ask.
“What’s up?”
“It’s personal, and if you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to, but can you afford the apartment by yourself?”
This isn’t something I had intended to ask Kingston before I asked Juno, but I saw the bills in her mail that Earl dropped off. Juno’s too proud to admit that she might be struggling financially. My mom’s right—why now, after all these years, is Juno running these blind speed dating nights?
Kingston’s eyebrows rise. “You guys are rushing things.”
“Don’t tell your sister—you know how slow she prefers things to go—but I don’t really see the sense of paying for two places when I intend for us to speed this up faster than a relationship that doesn’t include over a decade of friendship.”
He puts his hands in the air. “I’m not bringing it up to her, but yeah, I can afford it. Truth is though, I may just move out and get a place closer to Anchorage if she moves in with you.”
“You’d leave Lake Starlight?”
He shrugs. That’s where Kingston isn’t like his siblings. Most have stayed in Lake Starlight. I think everyone views Sedona as just not coming home after college, but someday she’ll return. And Phoenix goes back and forth between Los Angeles and Lake Starlight, but her home is here. Kingston is the one who never seems to be in Lake Starlight except to sleep.
“Well, don’t say anything. I haven’t asked her, and I’m prepared to get the brush-off at first.”
Kingston sips his beer. “You don’t get sick of her acting like that?”
I shrug. “I love her. To love someone, you love all the parts of them—their faults as well as their attributes. One day I hope I love her enough that she doesn’t feel like she can’t be all in. If I ever get her to marry me, then you’ll know I broke her down.”
He laughs and tips his bottle toward my water bottle. “You’re the only man who can do it.” He sips his beer. “Oh, I was thinking, let’s get everyone together for Jamison’s game. They’re playing the Seattle Sounders this weekend. I’m off unless I get called in.”
“Yeah definitely, we can do it at my house.”
“Perfect.”
“Bailey!” one of his buddies calls.
Kingston holds up his hand. “I better go. They can get kind of rowdy and I don’t want it to ruin Juno’s chances of having these events here. Text me details.” He stands and heads into the other room.
“Kingston,” I call, and he turns around. “As much as it sucks, sometimes you have to move on with your life until that person is ready to face whatever it is between you.”
“Is that how you got my sister? Pretended to get married to push her to make a move?” He laughs as if that’s absurd, and although I smile, guilt pierces my gut.
“Be good, King!” Juno yells, waving and coming back to me. She puts her arms around my neck. “Ready to take me back to your house?”
“I didn’t even give you a pickup line.”
“Eh. Those are overrated. I am the angel God sent down to Earth. You don’t need to walk by again because it was love at first sight, and I think I have a Band-Aid in my purse for that scrape on your knee from falling for me.” She kisses my lips. “See, I took care of it, so now I can crash at your place, Microsoft.”
I laugh, stand, and grab the box of her stuff, which I carry out the back door.
On the way home, the guilt over what Kingston said grows, making me feel sick to my stomach, and I clench her hand. “Juno?”
“Yeah.” She looks up from her phone.
“How long did you know you had feelings for me?”
She tucks her cell phone inside her purse. “I think they were always there… just… you know how messed up I can be about the future.”
I nod. She didn’t decide where she was going to college until April. She hates to make any future commitments, and the that fact Kingston is aware of it says she’s been like that for a long time. Maybe even before her parents’ death, but for some reason, I associate the two as intertwined. We were too young when her parents died to know for certain.
“But the good thing is I did.” She leans over and kisses my cheek.
“It wasn’t only because I was about to marry Brigette though, right?”
She turns down the radio and faces me so her back is pressed to the window. “What’s going on?”
I should’ve figured she’d read me. It’s the number one problem of knowing each other as long as we have. We’ve witnessed the other in too many circumstances. It’s like being a married couple without the sex.
“When I agreed to marry Brigette, I was upset. You had just told me about Trey, and I was pissed off that you’d slept with him and not me. I may have agreed to marry her out of spite.” There. It’s all out there. She can get mad if she chooses, but I would have never been able to continue without her knowing the truth. That I’m not the selfless guy she thinks I am.
“I figured. I don’t like it, but I’m glad to be where we are now. I hate myself for doing that, hurting you so much for so long.”
I stop at a light and now I can finally look at her. She’s really not mad. At least she doesn’t have that scowl I associate with her being pissed off. “You’re okay with that?”
She shrugs. “I see it as the past. After you told me, I connected all the dots. I was so scared of losing you, it took me actually losing you to make me act. As sad as that is.”
The light turns green and I press on the gas to get us home. “Thanks for understanding. I’m sorry if you felt I tricked you in some way. I would never want our relationship to start like that.”
She squeezes my hand. “Colton Stone, I’ve known you long enough to know you don’t do mean-spirited things.”
I nod and pull into my driveway. “Have you thought about moving some stuff in?”
She opens up the door. “Not yet. It’s only been a week. Slow the train a little.” She laughs, getting down, and disappears into my house.
Her phone dings and I pick it up from the center console. It’s an email alert and her screen lights up, popping up the thread. I glance at the garage door into the house and click on the message from her landlord. He states that he cannot give her any more time. The rent is due by this Friday; otherwise he’ll be closing her office Saturday.
My head falls back to the headrest and I close my eyes. How did I not see she was in trouble before now?
I turn off her phone and pull out mine, messaging Mario to find out the stipulations of my loan and do I have to use it for Four Paws.
Twenty-Six
Juno
* * *
Friday morning, I knock on Grandma Dori’s apartment door in Northern Lights Assisted Living and wait for her to answer. Going to her is really a Hail Mary. I hate asking her for money.
“Juno,” she says when she opens the door, her bluish-tinted hair in curlers. “Come in.”
I walk in to see a hairdresser from Clip and Dish cleaning up some things in Grandma’s kitchen sink.
“Since when do you not go to the salon?” I ask, and the hairdresser smiles at me.
“Mila didn’t mind coming here this time. Something is up with my knee.” She sits down on the couch, massaging it.
My entire life, I’ve never seen Grandma even sick. The woman is unstoppable. “Are you okay?”
She waves off my concern. “Stop it. Why are you here?”
I know Grandma Dori has some money, but I cannot just take her money to save a company I’m not sure I love anymore. I change my mind—I won’t even ask. “Just wanted to say hi.”
“Hmm… what’s the real reason?” I glanc
e back at Mila at the kitchen sink, and Grandma follows my movements. “Mila, you should go to the cafeteria and get some of the custard they have today. If anyone gives you trouble, you tell them you’re my girl.”
Mila either takes the hint or she loves custard because Grandma’s door shuts a minute later.
“What’s really going on, sweetie?” Grandma asks me, and I release a breath.
“Do you think Aunt Etta is real?”
“You mean did your mother make her up?”
I nod.
“Why would your mom do that?”
“Because I was an eleven-year-old who felt like I didn’t belong. Because my siblings were making fun of me, as were the kids at school. Hank Billings told me they bought me at a pawn shop on one of Mom’s trips.”
“The Billings are assholes, you know that.”
I nod. “I’m just not sure I’m really matchmaker material.”
Her eyes narrow. “Why on Earth would you think that? You’ve never once doubted yourself. Why now? Especially when your own love life is going so well.”
I smile, thinking about Colton. I should never have waited as long as I did to face how I feel about him. Although the fear that I’m going to lose him still lives just beneath that layer of love, I’ve done a really good job of pushing it as far down as I can. “I don’t know. I’m just wondering.”
“First of all, that’s your mom’s family, so I only really know what your mom told you and whatever you dug up.”
“Etta could be some random picture that means nothing, and I’ve clung to this belief my entire life for what? To feel like I somehow belong to my siblings even if I don’t look like them?”
“Look like them? Have you seen Holly?”
Has she really gotten so old she doesn’t remember who is actually her actual grandchild?
“Holly isn’t blood,” I say.
Grandma waves me off like she does when she knows someone else is right, but she’s older and wiser and we should just believe her. “The only ones who actually look alike are Phoenix and Sedona and Rome and Denver. The rest of you all—”
“Brooklyn and Savannah are both blonde.”
“Well, what about Austin? He doesn’t look like anyone.”
“He looks like his brothers. I have this red hair.”
“Well, sweetie, I’d describe your hair more as auburn with some dark undercurrents. Not to mention, what does hair color really prove?”
“It’s also my pale skin. No one has pale skin like me.”
“All of these silly things could be solved with hair dye and a fake tan. I was there when you were born, Juno. You’re a Bailey.”
I sulk in the chair. “I didn’t really believe Hank Billings. I didn’t think I was bought at a pawn shop or flea market.” I shrug. “I just feel like I’ve put all my rocks into being a matchmaker and what if Mom lied to me?”
“Did you know your mother to be a liar?”
“No, but I only knew her for thirteen years.”
Knock, knock.
“Perfect timing. Get the door.”
I stand and open the door to find Savannah there with a stroller.
“Brinley,” I say, bending to stare into the stroller at my beautiful niece.
“You wake her and you’re dead.” Savannah pushes the stroller into the apartment. “You’re getting your hair done, Grandma? I’m not sure Brinley should be exposed to those fumes.”
“It’s not a perm, they’re just rollers,” Grandma Dori scolds. We all seem to be on our last nerve today. “Do you think I didn’t raise a child of my own?”
“What are you doing here?” Savannah asks me.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I say.
“Because I have to talk to Grandma about business.” She moves the stroller back and forth to keep Brinley asleep. “How’s things with Colton, you little vixen?”
I feel heat fill my cheeks. “Fine.”
“Juno’s back to her whole ‘she’s not a real Bailey’ thing again,” Grandma Dori says.
Savannah scoffs. “Juno, you’re a Bailey.”
“I know I’m a Bailey, but I’m not sure if I’m a matchmaker. Did Mom ever lie to you?”
Savannah laughs. “And I thought I was hormonal. I went from mean to nice and now I’m in some weird galaxy where I cry about her getting older and yell at Liam for putting the lotion in the wrong place.”
“That’s motherhood,” Grandma Dori says, cool and calm.
“Juno, you need to relax. You’re good at what you do. This person at my work still refers you out because you got her brother with someone. They’re married and have, like, a trillion kids. Which after one, I’m not sure why people have more.” She looks at Brinley and smiles. “Although when she’s sleeping, she’s beautiful.”
I laugh. “Have you always loved working at Bailey Timber?”
She balks. “You’re joking, right? No. Remember a few years ago when Holly’s dad’s business was threatening ours and I thought we were going down? That was bad…” Her eyes laser in on mine as if she can see what’s really wrong. She glances at Grandma and back at me. “Call me later,” Savannah whispers.
“I better go anyway. If I can’t hold my niece, then I’m outta here.” I give Grandma a kiss on the cheek. “FYI, Colton wants his key back and Ethel is creeping him out.”
Grandma Dori laughs.
“What am I missing?” Savannah asks.
“Grandma used a key to get into Colton’s house the morning after the wedding.”
“Ew, why would you do that? You want to see them going at it?” Savannah’s face is one of pure disgust.
“And Ethel looks at him like he’s her next social security check,” I say.
“She does not and so what? You should feel complimented that she’s admiring his body so much,” Grandma says.
Savannah and I share the same look. Like one more word and we’re going to run to the toilet.
“Tell Colton to get used to the key thing,” Savannah says. “The other day I thought Brinley was missing when I went to her crib to get her only to find Grandma Dori with her in the family room.”
Grandma laughs.
“It’s not funny. I thought someone had kidnapped my child!”
“And then Liam came running out in his boxers. Ethel had no idea he had that many tattoos.” Grandma Dori’s eyes light up and now I’m thoroughly grossed out.
“Why is Ethel always with you anyway?” Savannah asks.
“Because the sheriff said if he found me driving, he’d put me in jail. I think he’s blowing smoke, but with Ethel’s family in Sunset Bay it’s like she’s part of ours.”
I kiss Savannah on the cheek. “Bye.”
“Wait up,” Savannah says before she points at Grandma. “Do not wake her up. I have to talk to you, and I’m not doing it while you’re cooing at Brinley.”
The two of us step out into the hallway.
“Is SparkFinder not doing too well financially?” Sav asks.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because that’s usually when the love for something dies. When you’re doing things like blind speed dating in a bar to make money instead of why you got into matchmaking in the first place, it tells me something is going on.”
“How do…” It doesn’t matter how she heard about the work I’m doing in Anchorage. Silly me, I thought all my siblings who just had babies were in lala land. I guess not. “I’m fine.”
“You’d tell me, right?”
“Of course.” I nod.
“No, you wouldn’t, but I have to go in there to rescue my baby because I just know Grandma’s not going to listen to me. Come over one day and we can go over your books. Figure something out.”
I turn and leave, only to hear Savannah open the door and yell, “I told you not to wake her!” And then Brinley screams.
I smile to myself. I left at the perfect time.
Driving back to my office, I think about Savannah’s words of
advice. She runs a huge company. Maybe she could’ve helped me, but it’s Friday and Mr. Richards wants his money for last month and this month’s rent and I don’t have it, so I’m going to have to get my things out.
I park down the block, and I’m surprised to find Colton waiting at my office door.
He holds up a bag from the sandwich place in Sunset Bay. “Lunch for my girl.”
“Sunset Bay?”
“Had to go to deliver puppies.”
“Did you bring one back with you?” I open the door to my office, and he follows me inside.
“Is that something you’d want?” He places the bag on my desk and pulls out the sandwiches.
“I’m actually surprised you don’t already have one.”
He nods. “I never felt settled enough for one, but now…” He wraps his arms around me and kisses my lips. “If my girlfriend wants one, I want to make her happy.”
“Oh, would you? Well, maybe it’s something we should talk about.”
“First you need to move in.” He squares his eyes on me.
I blow out a breath and wiggle out of his hold. “I’m starving. Tell me you got me the bacon turkey ranch?”
He stands in the middle of the room, apparently unwilling to answer me or move.
I look at him. “What?”
“Stop dodging the topic. Why won’t you move in with me?”
“What about Kingston?” Kingston actually told me a few nights ago, when I stopped home to grab some clothes, he’s thinking about moving closer to Anchorage.
“Fine, Kingston can move in too. We have two extra bedrooms.” He walks over and unwraps his sandwich.
“You mean you have two extra bedrooms.”
He leans over my desk, and right before he takes a bite of his sandwich, he says, “What’s mine is yours.”
“We’re not married,” I say, opening up my sandwich, which smells delicious. Cheese gushes out of the side and I lick my lips in anticipation. We found this place on a whim during one of the first days of spring outings.
“Yet.”
“Colton.” I sigh.
“Juno,” he mimics.